In this time of crisis, we are expanding our efforts to include research on the deadly new coronavirus and have established the amfAR Fund to Fight COVID-19 for that purpose. The fact is, amfAR is uniquely positioned to participate in the all-out effort to develop effective treatments and a vaccine for the coronavirus. However, we remain fully committed to HIV research and to finding a cure for the 38 million people worldwide living with HIV. That hasn’t changed. We are not diverting funds to COVID-19 research. All money donated for HIV research will stay in HIV research, whereas all donations to this special fund will be earmarked for research on COVID-19. In these challenging times, we are especially grateful for your generous support.
Frequently Asked Questions.

COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS

We are constantly gathering new information to keep you up to date on the intersection between HIV and COVID-19. As you will see from our video interviews in particular, the hard-won lessons of HIV research are informing the race to find effective treatments and a vaccine for COVID-19.

INTERSECTIONS: HIV AND COVID-19

In this series of short videos, Dr. Rowena Johnston, amfAR VP and Director of Research, talks to HIV researchers about their involvement in the fight against COVID-19. We’ll be adding new interviews regularly so check this page often.

amfAR’s Dr. Rowena Johnston interviews Dr. Betsy Herold of Albert Einstein College of Medicine about her research on COVID-19 in children and in particular the mysterious multi-system syndrome that affects a small number of children, sometimes after they have cleared the virus.

amfAR’s Vice President & Director of Public Policy Greg Millett recently spoke on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s forum on parallels between government responses to HIV and COVID-19. Millett presented COVID-19 data from amfAR’s Ending the HIV Epidemic database, updated daily: ehe.amfar.org

FROM THE FRONT LINES

IN THE NEWS

The American NightmareThe Atlantic – June 1, 2020
On the topic of black victims of COVID-19, leading antiracist voice Ibram X. Kendi writes : “According to the Foundation for AIDS Research, structural factors such as employment, access to health insurance and medical care, and the air and water quality in neighborhoods are drivers of black infections and deaths, and not ‘intrinsic characteristics of black communities or individual-level factors.’”

Americans Aren’t Getting the Advice They NeedThe Atlantic – May 28, 2020
As states begin to reopen, an HIV researcher notes how the general public has begun to develop its own guidance on how to cope with a pandemic, “just as the gay community did in the early days of AIDS.”